Former Clemson University basketball player Clarke Bynum Jr. of Sumter awoke to terror Friday toward the end of a long flight from Charlotte through London to Nairobi.

"Everybody was sleeping. All of a sudden there was a tremendous drop of the plane," Bynum said.

Sitting on the aisle seat on the second row behind the cockpit, he heard a banging in the cabin and the pilot screaming for help. Out the window, he saw the ground rushing up.

Moments later, Bynum bolted through the cockpit door and helped wrestle a hijacker who had caused the plane to begin a nose dive. In two or three more seconds, the plane would have turned over and then crashed within 10 seconds, one of the pilots later told Bynum.

Bynum wasn't even supposed to be on the plane. A London snowstorm caused him to miss his connection to Uganda on a mission trip to a Christian youth conference.

Because of the change in his flight plan, Bynum and his friend, Gifford Shaw, another Clemson graduate from Sumter, ended up on the British Airways Boeing 747 when it started plummeting.

"I looked at Gifford and said, 'We're going to die,' " Bynum said.

He saw a third pilot for the plane, a very small man, go into the cockpit. The horrific sounds of a struggle rang out, and the 39-year-old insurance agent turned back to Shaw and said he was going in.

"The Lord gave me the strength," Bynum said later in a telephone interview.

He yanked the cockpit door open.

"He had his arms choking around the pilot. I put my arms around his neck and shoulders and started wrestling. Gifford came in behind me."

The pilots steadied the plane while Bynum, Shaw and another man restrained the hijacker.

"It was an appointment for him to be on that plane because he wasn't supposed to be on it," said Bynum's wife, Sissy, who, like her husband, believes God put him on the flight.

Bynum and Shaw left Charlotte on Wednesday. It was the first time he had left his wife and four children for any length of time, but he wanted to go on this mission trip because it was a chance to teach and preach God's word.

"He left with a tear in his eyes and said, 'When I come back, I can promise you I'll come back with a story to tell,'" Mrs. Bynum said.

Bynum has a story but still has a picture to take. He wants a picture of Uganda children in Tiger orange.

He played basketball for Clemson from 1980 until 1984 and had with him on the plane a carry-on bag of Clemson Tiger souvenirs to give out in Uganda.

There is a men's basketball shirt given to him during a visit to Clemson in the fall, along with other Clemson shirts, a Tiger paw flag taken from a window pole on his car and a Clemson Tiger tail.

Emotionally and physically drained from the ordeal, Bynum and Shaw debated whether to go on to Uganda or return home.

Late Friday afternoon, he said they probably would continue with the two-week mission trip.

Sam Blackman, associate sports information director at Clemson, said Bynum was "a very well-liked young man. ... It doesn't surprise me that he would do something like that. He was very athletic."

Bynum, who is about 6 foot, 6 inches, was a standout high school player in Sumter and was heavily recruited by Clemson and the University of North Carolina, said Jim Phillips, an announcer for Clemson for 32 years.